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This petition was submitted during the 2019 to 2024 Parliament

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Closed Immediately revoke all licences for arms exports to Israel

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The UK is complicit in arming Israel, and many regard Israel to be committing war crimes.

Palestinian children have been made orphans, people have been crushed by buildings in airstrikes, and there have been many other tragedies. Arms that have been partly manufactured in the UK appear to be being used in the current military action in Gaza.

We believe the UK Government is on the wrong side of history, and must stop the sale of arms to Israel.

107,316 signatures

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  • Related activity

    Debate about Israel and Palestine

    MPs will debate the petition you signed, “Immediately revoke all licences for arms exports to Israel”, on Monday 16 December at 4.30pm.

    It is being debated with another petition, "For the United Kingdom to recognise the state of Palestine immediately"

    Watch the debate

    Read the transcript

    Read about how petition debates work

    We usually send out the links above after petitions debates have taken place.

    Due to the terms of our privacy notice, we are due to lose your contact details on 30 November, so we have emailed you in advance.

    You can watch the debate live on Monday 16 December, or later using the same link.

  • Parliament will debate this petition on 16 December 2024

    You’ll be able to watch online on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.

  • Petition closed

  • This petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

    This petition got more than 100,000 signatures meaning the Petitions Committee will consider it for debate in Parliament.

  • Related activity

    Israel and Gaza: Prime Minister questioned by Petitions Committee Chair

    The Prime Minister appeared before the Liaison Committee on Tuesday 26 March. The Chair of the Petitions Committee, Cat Smith MP, questioned the Prime Minister on a number of issues relating to the situation in Israel and Gaza, including:

    • implementation of a ceasefire
    • licences for UK arms exports to Israel
    • delivery of aid to Gaza

    For more information:

    What is the Liaison Committee?

    The Liaison Committee is made up of [Select Committee][6] Chairs. It considers the overall work of select committees, promotes the questioning of the Government and chooses committee reports for debates. It questions the Prime Minister about policy, usually three times a year.

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  • Government responded to this petition

    HM Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously and rigorously assesses every application on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.

    Read the response in full

    HM Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously and we operate one of the most robust and transparent export control regimes in the world. This is an important lever for promoting both UK prosperity and national and global security.

    We rigorously assess every application on a case-by-case basis against strict assessment criteria, the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (the SELC).

    The SELC provide a thorough risk assessment framework for export licence applications and require us to think hard about the impact of providing equipment and its capabilities. We will not license the export of equipment where to do so would be inconsistent with the SELC. These are not decisions we take lightly.

    We consider a range of factors, including examining the political and security conditions in the destination country, the nature of the equipment to be exported, the organisation or unit which will ultimately be the user of the equipment, and all available information about how similar equipment has been used in the past and how it is likely to be used in the future.

    The Government supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, but Israel must comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

    The Government continues to monitor the situation closely, and we keep all export licences under continual review. If necessary, we will take action to amend, suspend or revoke licences, in line with the SELC, if circumstances require.

    Department for Business and Trade

  • Government will respond to this petition

    This petition got more than 10,000 signatures meaning that government will respond to it.

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 30 May 2024.